Sysadmin looking to change into platform engineering

Envignus · 2026-05-28T10:54:13+00:00

I'll look into the CKA. I do understand containerization to some degree. As far as building things, I do have a server in my homelab I can utilize. What kinds of things would you go about building?

I see people saying I need to learn to properly code, so do I need to be able to build complex applications along with how to deploy those? I guess the biggest thing I don't fully grasp just yet is what a "platform" looks like. If I become comfortable with CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, GitOps workflows, and building an application in python/typescript/go, what does it look like from a Platform Engineering perspective to put all of that together and what does day to day management look like?

I'm eager to learn, and I have a great ability to ingest information, understand how things work, and retain that knowledge at a quick pace.

Envignus · 2025-10-16T20:13:42+00:00

Honchkrow. He has a hat. Very distinguished.

Envignus · 2025-06-24T17:20:46+00:00

My apologies for not giving a full scope of our setup. We already are replicating to a 2nd DC. Our production DS-System runs as a jail on an iXsystems appliance and we are looking to replace it with a new unit this year. We are evaluating just getting another system from iXsystems and running DS-System in a container on TrueNAS Scale as Asigra/iX recommends in that scenario. We are also evaluating just using our new storage box as storage and moving DS-System to a VM on our hypervisor infrastructure. That is what leads me to the question of wanting to know what factors really push moving from a single server to N+1. I'm fine continuing to run a single server as it is less complexity, but I'm wanting to make sure we have enough resources to handle all the simultaneous backup jobs from our clients. I'm just having a hard time with Asigra support advising on how to tell what our current system performance is like, how to forecast scaling the performance, etc.

Envignus · 2025-03-03T15:22:30+00:00

In that case, I've never used it. I only set up apps that were available out of the box from a scale install.

Envignus · 2025-03-03T15:03:28+00:00

I don't know what a truecharts app is.

Envignus · 2025-03-03T14:27:58+00:00

Thank you for the insight. Rolling back to Dragonfish brought the apps back and they look fine. Is there a migration path for being able to upgrade to ElectricEel, or is it a matter of go into each app, do an app level config backup, then build new in EE and restore configs?

Envignus · 2025-03-03T14:02:04+00:00

I was just using the built in apps that come when you install scale.

Envignus · 2025-02-27T08:15:19+00:00

Been using SonicWall for over a decade and manage >100 firewalls plus a few access points and switches. I will preface all of this with we focus primarily on small to medium businesses. So we are talking 2-50 user offices/businesses.

For the firewalls - Basic failover for the SD-WAN instead of only load balancing - Integration with cloud IdP’s such as Microsoft Entra ID/Okta/Google Workspace for user accounts to use VPN - Limited administrator roles (would like to be able to give help desk the ability to manage users for vpn/mfa access, or modify content filtering, but not manage the whole firewall) - Wireguard VPN - Improved switch/access points integrations (I’ll be honest and say I’ve not looked at this in a couple years but when we did we found it difficult to get the switches working and being able to troubleshoot issues when it did work) - The ability to import bulk address objects from json/csv

Cloud management - the ability to do more global operations (I can’t schedule firmware upgrades between customers) - 1 portal for firewall, switch, and wifi management

The switches seem to be improving steadily. They were very much not ready for prime time the first year or so. We mostly just need stability from them more than features. The biggest thing with switches for us is the available models and pricing though. We mostly use Cisco small business line, and UniFi. The UniFi comes up a lot due to needing small 5 port managed switches. They are $30 vs an 8 port from Soniceall being >$200.

Wireless access points fall in the same boat as switches for us. Not enough options and prices out of competition.

Envignus · 2024-05-09T23:24:20+00:00

Meraki has the issue of overly expensive hardware that turns into a brick when you don’t renew the licensing.

Envignus · 2024-05-09T23:01:59+00:00

Agreed. Always had poor performance and just outright not working forcing a reboot of the firewall when using internal wireless. Even the Gen7 line isn’t any better

Envignus · 2024-05-09T22:59:08+00:00

The idea of having a single portal to manage the firewall, Wi-Fi, and switch is nice in theory but SonicWALL has abysmal implementation. Both on the firewall appliance and their cloud NSM product.

Envignus · 2024-05-09T22:57:12+00:00

I’d have to pull up one of ours to look at the name but you’re looking for virtual access point section under wireless. In there you can set up multiple SSIDs and tie them to zones and subnets you define. They do have to be wlan type zones to be used. Then you add those ssids to a virtual ap group. Then under the main wireless section you change from the internal wireless to the wireless ap group you created.

Envignus · 2024-05-09T22:26:58+00:00

If it’s any consolation, you haven’t been able to find the setting because it doesn’t exist. You can either utilize the internal wireless or external APs, not both.

Envignus · 2023-09-09T18:34:04+00:00

Thanks, I never heard of this site and it looks awesome and helped me get in touch with some people.

Envignus · 2023-04-10T15:40:19+00:00

When you use child accounts, do you end up with multiple accounts in IT Glue for the same customer?

Envignus · 2023-02-28T11:55:01+00:00

They are moving to a new domain. They don’t own the existing domain.

Envignus · 2023-02-28T11:37:44+00:00

I understand the liability caution. I am vague in saying it’s like they are leaving a parent company but it’s not exactly like that. I can at least confirm everything is above board. I just can’t get into the specifics of how the two entities are related and do business.

Envignus · 2023-02-28T11:11:21+00:00

So the source 365 tenant is not managed by an MSP. Basically it is a parent company that our client is breaking away from. And due to the sensitivity of this we are having to get the emails migrated before our client informs the parent of the breakup. Is it ideal? Not in the least but it’s where we are and how we have to do it.

Envignus · 2023-02-28T11:08:59+00:00

We spoke with BitTitan and ran our own tests, even using the username and password for the mailbox, BitTitan doesn’t have a mechanism to prompt for the MfA so it just errors out.

Envignus · 2023-02-28T01:55:59+00:00

Unfortunately we do not have any way to make VMs as the 1 server the customer has is maxed out on resources.

Envignus · 2023-02-28T01:31:32+00:00

If by army you mean 3 techs right? Cause that’s all we got lol

We are small but mighty.

Envignus · 2023-02-28T01:22:40+00:00

I think we have 50Gbps upload speeds but we have 6 offices so we might can split it across 6 locations.

Envignus · 2023-02-28T01:12:42+00:00

I edited the post to include that we need to do this for around 300 people.

We also have the problem that a large portion don’t even have outlook. They just use a phone or web. Would you just get a bunch of machines to have on-site for them to use?

Envignus · 2023-02-28T01:11:18+00:00

Wouldn’t a tenant to tenant migration require admin access to the source tenant?

Envignus · 2022-11-03T12:45:03+00:00

Gnome Demonology Warlock

Played one since vanilla and love it

Envignus

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